Friday, June 15, 2007

Stop me if you've read this one....

I really like Lee Morgan. If you were to ask who was my favorite all time trumpet players in jazz, he'd probably rank either first or second (behind Clifford Brown). He had a really unique solo voice - bluesy, funky, with a lot of those half-valve squirts - and was a great writer too.
So it's kind of ironic that I forgot the albumin the last couple entries his when listing all the records I bought . Charisma is the name of the album, which also features good ol' Hank Mobley.
OK, I think I finally listed all of them.

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The theme of tonight's entry is the issue of buying too much music and not having the time to listen to it. Gone are the days when I could spend most of the eight-hour work day listening to music while I worked. Or having it be part of my main working gig. So that leaves the time that I'm home and the time I'm in the car. And when I'm home I want to spend most of that time with my wife and kid (or blogging), or sleeping.

Aw hell I'm whining again. Here's what I'm getting at...

I just bought a buttload of cds over the past couple weeks, plus I came home from 2 house sales last Saturday with about 40 records under my arm. The majority of them only cost a quarter each so I snatched up things that I might otherwise avoid.

The first sale had a Frank Sinatra album marked at $3, which was $2 more than the other albums. Fair enough, I guess. Ol' Blue Eyes can be sort of collectable. But in that same stack I found a Hank Ballard & the Midnighters album that's worth somewhere between $100 and $400. And the Isley Bros' Shout, original mono. $150 mint. Chuck Berry's Greatest Hits on Chess. $100. All of these were $1 each.

Funny the value people put on stuff.

The second sale was the quarter a piece one. I got there early but the folks didn't seem to mind. They had a fairly big stack of records out already but the guy kept bringing out more. And more. And more. After the fifth stack, he asked if still wanted to see more. Damn buddy, you want to sell them don't you? There were about 6 albums by Sandy "Let there Be Drums" Nelson, so I picked up two or three. I don't know, anymore seemed excessive. There was a nice copy of Grandpa Jones' Fifteen Cents is all I've Got, two Alvin & the Chipmunks albums (Songbook and ...Sing Dr. Doolittle). God Bless Tiny Tim. Three Connie Francis albums (same thing goes with Sandy Nelson. I don't need a copy of Connie singing "Oh Suzannah.)

They also had a bunch of '60s 45s. One I got was the Rolling Stones' "Lady Jane." I've always loved that song. The acoustic guitars sound so crisp. The harpsichord is a nice touch. And Michael Philip Jagger sounds less like the cad and more like the gracious gentleman in it. And when he sings the word "my love," he always sounded to me like he had a cold and was actually singing "by lub."

On top of all those, I bought about eight CDs over the past two weeks. Let's see if I can recall them:
Sonic Youth - Sister
David Torn - Prezens (has Tim Berne on it)
Roscoe Mitchell - Sound
Charlie Parker - Overtime (a comp that has pretty much all the Verve Diz/Bird/Monk masters, some Savoy and a one w/Lennie Tristano that I don't have)
John Coltrane - Traneing In

........I've actually listened to all of them at least once. I had to go the Maryland for work this week and swore I'd hole myself up in my hotel room with all the music and just listen in the evening. It sort of worked. But I kept falling asleep.

While in Maryland I found a beat up but playable original copy of Monk Plays Ellington, Antietam's Music from Elba and Franklin Bruno's Bedroom Community. I was happy to find them but felt like maybe I should take a break from buying stuff and get caught up with what I have. Record buying is losing its appeal. Oh now, I'm getting old!

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